Essential Histories

Each Essential Histories book studies the origins, politics, fighting and repercussions of one major war or theatre of war, from both military and civilian perspectives. Spanning 3000 years of human conflict, most major wars are covered, from the Punic Wars to the Iran-Iraq war. Featuring full colour maps, diagrams and photography throughout, each book in Osprey’s Essential Histories series also includes pictures of contemporary artwork and artefacts, providing a full visual appreciation what it was like to live through each war. Essential Histories are an important reference resource for students, teachers, academics, history enthusiasts and hobbyists.

This book examines the seminal Northwest Europe campaign of the Second World War. This hard-fought campaign conducted by the Western Allies against the Germans during 1944-45 represented, for the former,...

Campaigns fought by Louis XIV, the Sun King, shaped the borders of European states, the destinies of royal dynasties, and even the patterns of absolutist government. This book presents the most authoritative...

While many of the participants were the same as the First World War, this conflict was far more than a re-match of 1914-1918. The Second World War was even more destructive than the first and the added...

The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 was of enormous international as well as national significance. In this gripping volume, Frances Lannon explains how this internal conflict between democracy and its enemies...

Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were two of the greatest generals Rome had ever produced. Together they had brought vast stretches of territory under Roman dominion. In 49 BC they turned against each...

The War of 1812-1815 was a bloody confrontation that tore through the American frontier, the British colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, and parts of the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The conflict...

This volume covers Napoleon's gradual fall from power, beginning in the spring of 1813, when France prepared to face the vengeance of Russia and Prussia. quickly raising new armies composed of inexperienced...

The American Revolution has been characterized politically as a united political uprising of the American colonies and militarily as a guerrilla campaign of colonists against the inflexible British military...

The Vietnam War was arguably the most important event, or series of events, of the "American Century." America entered the brutal conflict certain of its Cold War doctrines and certain of its moral mission...

In the early third century AD the Roman Empire was a force to be reckoned with, controlling vast territories and wielding enormous political power from Scotland to the Sahara. 400 years later this mighty...